When someone makes a decision to become a public security officer, whether it’s from a municipal to federal standing, they have to swear to uphold and protect the United States Constitution as a part of their oath of office. But what happens when this oath is broken? What legal tools do ordinary civilians have to rectify these losses?
Federal law enforcement officials have frequently broken the Fourth Amendment’s warrant clause and unlawfully seized people from within their homes or cars. Recent reports show that federal immigration officers have begun claiming that they can enter private homes without judge-issued warrants, relying on “administrative warrants” instead. These blatant violations of the Constitution need to be stopped — and the initial step is holding individual offenders accountable.
HB 4114, the Protect Your Door Act, is state legislation that codifies the conditional rights to be secure in one’s home, ensuring that anyone who enters your home without a valid warrant signed by a judge, or without consent, can be personally sued for damages. By allowing civilians the right to enforce their constitutional rights, this bill only strengthens them.
Representative Lesly Muñoz, District 22, is one of the chief sponsors of this bill. Many of the representatives in the Democratic Caucus had set aside their initial priorities to support the Immigration Justice package, which HB 4114 is part of, to counter the damage from rampant immigration raids.
“My bill is about protecting the federal constitution — it doesn’t have to do with federal law, and there’s a difference between those two,” Rep. Muñoz said. One of the popular questions among constituents about this bill concerns the supremacy clause, and whether a state law could successfully hold federal officers accountable; since federal officers serve the U.S. Constitution, this bill would encompass them.
Rep. Muñoz said that if this legislation is approved, individuals who suffer bodily harm due to an unlawful search can seek compensation for medical expenses from the responsible agent. Additionally, if a public official damages personal property in your home, you would also have the right to file a lawsuit for the damage to your belongings.
“This idea came up when I went out into my community, and I had a meeting with some farm workers, and they were talking about how upset they were about the way that ICE raids were going,” Rep. Muñoz said. “They are basically detaining people, taking them to Tacoma, taking their phones and money, and after the investigations, it’s clear that they had no reason to detain people.”
Reports similar to this claim were found in Minnesota, with lawyers confirming claims of unlawful seizures of property.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have a longstanding problem of destroying or misplacing a detained migrant’s personal belongings. According to data from the American Immigration Council, there were 226 formal complaints about missing items between 2012 and 2015.
“So we thought that if we put a measure in, where individual agents feel like there’s a possibility that this might hit them in their pockets, that might be a deterrent for people doing this work to not (violate people’s rights),” Rep. Muñoz said.
This bill is part of the Immigrant Justice Package, which includes many notable representatives and organizations supporting bills to protect immigrant communities in Oregon. This particular bill has gained prominent support from the ACLU of Oregon, the Oregon AFL-CIO, the League of Women Voters and the Oregon Law Center.
“Across the country, federal agents aren’t providing any judicial warrants, and they’re trying to apprehend immigrant community members,” Ira Cuello-Martinez from Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, a farmworkers advocacy group, said. “The Protect Your Door Act would allow individuals to be able to sue anyone, including a federal agent who has violated their Fourth Amendment rights.”
